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When the Diamondbacks unveiled their new uniforms, and I--like most of you--was not a fan of what they did. I was surprised, however, when I read the comments on Paul Lukas's critical article about them on espn.com: a majority of the comments were very supportive of the new uniforms and were very critical of Lukas's opinions. It was very interesting to me to see the difference in how these boards at CCSLC viewed the uniforms from how those who post on espn.com view them. It reminded me that we tend to dislike bizarre new uniforms while the (young) general public who post on espn.com (and don't think about uniforms as much as we do) embrace them. And we have to realize that we who notice uniforms to the degree we do are a very small minority of total fans, and the number one goal of these redesigns is to sell merchandise. Anyhow, I decided to try to "fix" the new Diamondbacks uniforms. The goal was to take what they did and make it more palatable. If I would have been hired by the D-backs to design their uniforms, they would not look like this; but my goal for this project was to take what they unveiled and improve it. Many of you will think it is like putting lipstick on a pig, but I enjoyed the challenge. I took inspiration from Brandon Moore's Fix-It-Friday series that took current looks and tried to improve them while staying true to the original vision of the club. What I Like • The decision to try something new. They--along with the Rockies, Rays, and Marlins--don't have long histories and can get away with looking for unique and modern elements. (I have no problem with the Marlins redesign for this reason...not the biggest fan of how it looks, but I can appreciate with what they are trying to do.) • The snake-head logo. I loved that they brought this guy back from their first look. • The dark gray road uniforms. When I first saw them they were presented on a black background, and I thought they looked like a mess. Seeing it away from the black backgrounds really helps these; I like the darker color and think it will look good on a ball diamond. I especially like how the turquoise on the alternate pops; this is my favorite jersey of the bunch. The turquoise would look muddled on a standard gray. What I Don't Like • The different color schemes. How can you effectively build a brand if you can't even decide what colors you want to wear. Arizona is now a black, turquoise, and red team some days and on others say they are a black, red, and sand team. Pick one. This seems to be terrible branding to me. If your fans can't tell you what your colors are, that's a problem. I went with red, black, turquoise, and silver. The sand color did not work with the turquoise, but I needed another accent color to balance out the brightness of the red and turquoise. The fans seem to really embrace the turquoise, and it is unique. They can build a unique brand with this unique color scheme. • The truncated pant stripe. Why, oh why? This is just awful. What I Like But Don't Like • The snakeskin. I like the idea, but the execution is off. The pattern looks nice and I like that they tried something new, but the different colored shoulders look bad...is that dandruff? And it's also under the armpit and on the pants. Even the execution on the alternate hats isn't really good. • The wordmarks. They are an improvement over the last set, and I especially like the Arizona mark. But there are issues with the D-backs mark. First of all, I'm not a fan of using a shortened version of your team name on your uniforms. The problem is Diamondbacks is too long, but D-backs is too informal for a jersey. Then again, these jerseys aren't the most professional to begin with, so I decided to leave it on my redesign. I'm also not a fan of the K; it looks like an H. Again, in the end, I decided to leave it as is, though. My last issue with this mark is that the K has a fang, but there is only one. The Arizona mark has two fangs--as any good rattlesnake has. The D-backs mark is unbalanced. I did fix this is my redesign; here is my updated mark: As you can see, I fanged the B to make the mark balanced. My Fix Logos I did make some subtle changes to the D-Snake logo. I made the negative-space diamondback pattern on his back pointed instead of rounded. Hats As you can see, I kept the halftone diamond pattern, but I started it on the bill instead of the panels of the cap. This way they take a common baseball look (the contrasting bill) and make it their own. The halftone pattern would continue a short ways onto the panels of the cap. Uniforms I liked the more subtle sublimated diamond pattern on the alternate home and road sets, but I don't like the abrupt end to it at the shoulders. I decided to have the high density part of the pattern be in the middle of the back instead of the top so that there wouldn't be the abrupt division between the lighter and darker colors. I did begrudgingly keep the weird pant pattern. I'm not a fan, but I decided I would prioritize changing some other things instead of that. I only wanted to change a few things. As you can see, I did add the pattern to the socks; if anyone wears high-cuffed pants, they should still rock the pattern. The team would match their shoes to the color of the pattern on the pants (or socks). They can also match the four hats (not the snake-head hat) and undershirts, belts, and socks for diversity. Alternate Uniforms I decided to go with the D-backs script on the black alternates because I love how the turquoise looks on the black, and the black alternate they use would minimize the turquoise. I used the diamond pattern they currently use but flipped it. Now it takes a look we have seen before--contrasting colored sleeves with a vest--and makes it their own. The snake-head hat can be worn with the alternates. As a reminder, this is their look: As I said earlier, if I were starting from scratch, this would not be my suggestions, but I do think that it greatly improves their look. If you have interest, you can check out my redesign of the Diamondbacks when I combined their previous eras. I used a black and aqua color scheme, and then I experimented with purple and red.